62 | HealthLinksSC.com HOSPITAL CHAPLAINS: ANGELS WHO WALK HOSPITAL HALLS By Riley Mathews Hospital chaplains, channels for others’ worries and grief, work daily to bring peace and comfort to vulnerable individuals and their families. Whether joyfully blessing the birth of a new baby or offering someone their last rites before death, hospital chaplains provide the necessary emotional and spiritual care. The doctors and nurses within a hospital treat patients’ physical needs, but St. Francis Health System Spiritual Care Director Father Jonathon Duncan emphasized that chaplains serve the whole person – “the soul, the heart and the emotions.’ The everyday work of a hospital chaplain, from the mundane to the miraculous, is vital to the well-being of patients. Busy mornings tend to revolve around scheduled surgeries, from simple outpatient operations to more severe heart procedures, for all of which chaplains are available to bring a calming and prayerful presence to anxious patients. Father Duncan explained, “They help our patients hand over their procedure and health to God.” The chaplains continue their visits throughout the day and discern where their presence will be most impactful by studying each patient’s hospital re-admission rate, if they are facing organ failure or death and the strength of their faith. The help chaplains provide extends beyond patients. Father Duncan’s team of chaplains discovered a need for staff support in recent COVID-19-infested years: “Staff burnout is a real thing, particularly in health care. From our techs and nursing aides to our nurses to our physicians and everything in between, health care can be draining but joyful work.” Aside from everyday rounds and routine patient visits, chaplains also are present for emergencies, such as a heart attack or seizure, to help support families and hospital staff. The work of a chaplain includes the dynamic of experiencing both the beginning and the end. They welcome life to the world by blessing newborn children and offer invitations to return to God when life nears the end. These events are intertwined by one similarity – a chaplain is there to comfort and promote peace at all stages of a person’s life. Father Jonathon Duncan.
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